For the first time we’ve got to the end of the night and still don’t know who the winner is. The Swiss Manager Pairing Software did its work, thanks to the expert knowledge of chairman Dave, to give us a four-way tie at the end of the scheduled five rounds. With the clock ticking past 10.30 at the end of round 5, we decided it was too late to continue to the play-offs as two of the contenders are 14 years old and have school in the morning.
Despite best efforts to get the event underway at 7.30, we were thrown the usual curve balls as illness caused one withdrawal around 5.30pm. The crammed car park forced numerous players to park away from the venue causing inevitable delays and then pairings had to be revised as several expected members did not arrive. However it was great to see a returning member as Rick Renegade rejoined the club, some 9 years after walking in on our 2017 T&P Handicap. We were also delighted that our 2016 winner Lukasz Holcman accepted the invitation to join us for what many see as the highlight of the club year.
The first round got underway at 7.45pm with 55 players in action (one getting a full point bye) and results went mainly to plan as the top half of the pack notched up the majority of wins. However there were three surprise results as the underdogs picked up valuable early wins. These went to Phil Foster (ranked 39), Mal Green (43) and six year old Jasper Ludlow (54th), which meant they were head and shoulders above the pack with their handicaps of 1.5; 2 & 2.5 pts respectively to be added to their 5-round scores.
Round 2 saw several of the big guns suffer unexpected losses as 3 of the top 6 came unstuck. The round 1 underdog winners suffered the consequence of much tougher pairings in Round 2, as the cream began to rise to the top. There were 13 players on 2/2 with all being seeded in the top half.
Round 3 produced some titanic battles as only four players emerged with a 100% record still intact, and several draws (which are quite rare in this event) railroaded another four of the leading pack. Only one of the top ten seeds was on 3/3 meaning all the other top 10 were now out of contention to win the event. The handicaps are stacked so the top players must score 5/5 to have any chance of winning, as there will normally be some improving lower rated players that score more than 5 pts with the handicaps. So at the end of Round 3 we had James Ratcliffe, John Astley, Pawel Stanny and Nathan Fourie as the only players on 100%. However the handicaps of scratch, one, one and 1.5 pts gave Nathan a bit of an edge.
Round 4 saw James and Nathan emerge victorious. Several other players were in contention going into round 5 thanks to the handicaps which gave them the chance to score more than 5 pts. These included Finn Charboneau, Tommy Cooke, Dave Roberts, and Steve Knott. However it would be the board 1 pairing in round 5 that would determine the likely outcome. James Ratcliffe (5 mins) knew he had to beat Nathan (11 mins) to force a play-off. If Nathan could avoid defeat he would be the outright winner with a combined score of 6 or 6.5pts. If James could win his 100% score guarantees a play-off place with anyone scoring 5 pts or more. The final round saw Tommy and Steve Knott both win to move onto 5.5 pts.
The drama from board 1 was electric, as James gained a pawn advantage but Nathan swapped off nearly all the major pieces to leave one of those difficult Rook endings which often end up in draws. However with Blitz games nothing is straight forward and James made a big error moving his King into check when he only had 23 seconds left. As the Arbiter I advised the players that Nathan was entitled to claim the win, but Nathan chose the sporting option of playing on, knowing he couldn’t really force the win but should hold on for a draw despite being a pawn down. James somehow kept the game alive moving with incredible speed and control, and having been over a minute down when he put himself in check, suddenly found he was hovering around 8 seconds left when Nathan froze and let 11 seconds disappear to be “flagged”.
It took some time to work out that four players were now involved in a play-off.
So next week we will have two rounds of armageddon chess to determine who will win the Les Hall Memorial Trophy.
The semi-finals are James (W) vs Steve K and Tommy (W) vs Nathan.
White players receive an extra minute to their allocated times, so James will have 6 mins vs Steve’s 12. Tommy will get 10 mins vs Nathan’s 11. If these games are drawn then black is deemed the winner. Colours for the final will be based on the toss of a coin or other agreed method, where white will be given one extra minute again and draw odds give black the win.
Hopefully the semi-finals will take place at 7.00pm next Tuesday (15th) and the final should start no later than 7.30pm.
Please see below for the final cross-table and rankings, noting that three players scored 5.5pts with the handicap to finish in the play-offs with the only 100% record. Dave Price and Pradhyun Ranjith scored 5 pts with their handicaps and there were 8 players finishing on 4.5 pts with their handicaps as well.
Full result’s